The trend for organic gardening at home and in restaurants keeps increasing. Homeowners and restaurenteurs in cities want to consume healthier organic plants and vegetables that they either (1) know the growing conditions, and (2) control or grow themselves. Nutrient-rich and healthy organic plants and vegetables free of disease, pest resistance, and without the use of chemicals are in high demand. For the healthiest plants and vegetables, the optimal growing conditions are required.
Since soils deteriorate with time. Menure and compost are used to enrich the soils. However, the traditional growing method using soils require a large land area and soils are difficult to maintain. Different methods of healthy plant/vegetables growing in urban settings include areoponics and hydroponics. Hydroponics is noticeably better than conventional farming methods since the basic requirements of a plant are few-water, sunshine, and nutrients. In a hydroponic system, a plant does not need an extensive root system because it does not have to expend energy seeking nutrients as it does when grown in the ground. Aeroponics is a method of growing plants in a moist environment. The plants are suspended in an enclosed setting and water, mixed with plant food, is sprayed onto the roots. Aeroponics systems are frequently employed in an enclosed environment like a greenhouse so that the temperature and humidity can be accurately regulated. Although sunlight is the principal light source, some additional lighting may also be added.
In an aeroponics system, the roots of the plants are misted with nutrients, water, and oxygen. Using a closed loop system, 95% less water than field farming is used and 40% less than hydroponics. LED lights are used to create a precise light formula for each plant, giving the plants the exact range, intensity, and frequency that the plants require for photosynthesis in the most energy-efficient way. With aeroponics, a grower can take the exact same seed from the field and grow it in half the time as a traditional field farmer, leading to 390 times more productivity per square foot than a commercial field farm. Using aeroponic technology, researchers discovered the yields of plants grown were more than 30% larger on average. For example, red kale had a 65% increase, bell peppers had a 53% increase, cucumbers were 7% larger, and squash 50%. Both aeroponic and soil growing methods produced comparable nutritional value. With traditional growing methods in soil, a lot of space is required. The problem is that we have less and less of it, and we are losing about 3,000 acres of farmland to development every day. But growing aeroponics vertically requires only 10% of the room traditional farming needs.
In a U.S. Patent Publication Application No. US-2017/0347547 by Lu et al. (hereinafter referred to as the “'547 application”), Lu et al. disclose a cabinet for growing plants hydrophonically. The '547 application discloses a housing including different modules for automatic refilling of nutrient and disposing of sewage water. However, the growing area includes pods that can grow only one type of plant/vegetable at a time. Furthermore, the manner the pods are arranged, the '547 application cannot grow a sufficient amount of plants and can grow one type of plant at a time. That means, the user has to wait until one type of plant is harvested to grow another type of plant. Consequently, he/she has to reset the growing condition of the cabinet. Healthy consumption requires a variety of vegetables such as salads, tomatoes, onions, etc.
In addition, the door of the cabinet of the '547 application is designed to open outward, taking about three times more of spaces for the prior-art cabinet to fully operate. Thus, the operational space for the '547 application cabinet is the total of the thickness of the cabinet, the width of the door, and the space for the free movement of the user.
The air circulation system including fans of the '547 application cabinet is designed to blow directly into the plants as shown in FIG. 2. This arrangement increases the risk of damaging the plants/vegetables in the pod.
Continuing with the discussion of the prior-art cabinet of the '547 application, the water system and the arrangement of vertical growing pods are designed to save water. However, this arrangement increases the risk of creating uneven growing conditions. Those plants on top near the water source will have more nutrient than those in the bottom. Plants/vegetables on different levels will receive different amount of nutrients. Similarly, the lateral lighting device would adversely affect plants/vegetables qualities because those pods are far away from the lateral lighting will get lower lighting condition and photosynthesis.
Therefore what is needed is a smart growing cabinet that can grow different types of plants at the same time.
This means that, what is needed is smart growing cabinet that can simultaneously create different and precise growing conditions for different types of plants/vegetables at the same time.
Yet, what is needed is a smart growing cabinet that is mechanically designed so that it takes less rooms to operate, i.e., for users to go in and out to harvest or to control the conditions of the cabinet, facilitating healthy gardening in narrow home spaces.
Yet, what is needed is a smart growing cabinet that can create a balanced and even ventilation, lighting conditions, and nutrient level for all sorts of plants/vegetables.
The present invention provides solutions to the abobe needs.